Internet Connection Sharing Problems in Xp

[Plantguy]

I have set up a home network with two computers. They are both connected to a router, but we are using it as a hub. File and print sharing is working properly, but the Internet Connection Sharing isn't working at all...

I have exausted all of my other technical supports, and found out that nobody supports what they sell...

Any help greatly appreciated,
Mike Plantguy
m_vaninsberghe@hotmail.com
vanins@island.net

 

[rjkrash]

How do you connect to the internet?
The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[BMorey]

Were you using ICS before installing the hub/switch? If so, your cable is a cross-over cable and will not work when plugged directly into the hub. Check it anyway.

I had this problem and was tearing my hair out until I got a tip to connect the cable from PC #2 (which was using the cross-over cable) into the uplink port of the hub. Problem solved. Other solution if you don't have an uplink port is to buy a straight-thru cable.

Tip - the uplink port is used normally used to connect two hubs and may be marked 'connect to hub only' or similar.

 

[Plantguy]

I connect using a dial-up modem

Sorry...
Mike

Thanks BMory! I'll try it Plantguy
m_vaninsberghe@hotmail.com
vanins@island.net

 

[rjkrash]

Has the ICS 'wizard' setup a Network Bridge between the NIC card and the Dialup?

If so, the "trick" is to make the Network Bridge a part of the same network subnet as the rest of the NIC cards, routers, and wireless equipment in the network. Microsoft sets the 169.254.n.n subnet for the bridge by default. All I had to do (after much head scraching, and reading X-)) was set the Network Bridge's TCP/IP properties to a network address in the same subnet as the rest of my network, in my case a 192.168.1.n. (Rt click Network Bridge, select properties, select "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and click properties, then select the "Use the following IP address" button and enter an available IP address in your subnet along with the proper subnet mask and default gateway.)
I also enabled TCP/IP forwarding/routing on my ICS host machine although I'm not sure it makes any difference.

To enable TCP/IP forwarding/routing:

Use Registry Editor to view the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
Set the following registry value:
Value Name: IPEnableRouter
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 1


The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[Plantguy]

No, the ICS wizard didn't make a network bridge between the NIC and the dial up...

Is that what I need to do???
I have tried to do that, and i recieve this error message:
To create a Network Bridge, you must select at least
two network connections that are not being used by
Internet Connection Sharing or the Internet Connection
Firewall.

Mike Plantguy
m_vaninsberghe@hotmail.com
vanins@island.net

 

[rjkrash]

Sorry, It won't be able to create a bridge from the NIC to the dialup I forgot it's not allowed to. My mistake. This is still however probably an IP address issue. If your cabling is correct.

When you enable Internet Connection Sharing on your modem, the local area network connection to your network, your NIC, is given a new static IP address and configuration. Consequently, TCP/IP connections established between any computer and the ICS host computer at the time of enabling ICS are lost and need to be reestablished.

When you run the Network Setup Wizard and enable Internet Connection Sharing, certain protocols, services, interfaces, and routes are configured automatically.

IP address 192.168.0.1 Configured with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 on the LAN adapter that is connected to the network.
Autodial feature Enabled.
Static default IP route Created when the dial-up connection is established.
Internet Connection Sharing service Started.
DHCP allocator Enabled with the default range of 192.168.0.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Unique addresses in the range 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254 are allocated to private network clients.
DNS proxy Enabled.

What all this means is your NIC on the other computer needs to NOT have a static address. Instead it should be set to obtain it's IP address automatically.

Other possible causes for ICS failures -

Cause: The wrong LAN network adapter is shared.

Solution: A computer with Internet Connection Sharing needs two connections. One connection, typically a network adapter, connects to the other computers on the network and the other connection (modem in your case) connects the network to the Internet. You need to ensure that Internet Connection Sharing is enabled on the connection that connects your network to the Internet, the modem.

Cause: TCP/IP is not installed on home or small office network computers.

Solution: By default, the TCP/IP protocol is installed on computers running Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, and Windows NT version 4.0. If users on your network are running operating systems other than these, verify that TCP/IP is installed on their computers.

Cause: If users on your network cannot reach the Internet, TCP/IP is incorrectly configured on their computers.

Solution: Verify that the following TCP/IP settings are established on local area connections:

IP Address: Obtain an IP address automatically (through DHCP)
DNS server: Obtain DNS server address automatically
Default gateways: None specified
For computers running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium, or Windows NT version 4.0, you can find the TCP/IP settings in Network in Control Panel.

Cause: If users on your network cannot reach the Internet, their Internet options need to be modified.

Solution: Internet options must be modified for Internet Connection Sharing.

To configure Internet options for Internet Connection Sharing
Open Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
On the Connections tab, click Never dial a connection, and then click LAN Settings.
In Automatic configuration, clear the Automatically detect settings and Use automatic configuration script check boxes.
In Proxy Server, clear the Use a proxy server check box.



The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[Plantguy]

Sorry for the delay in response...
I have tried all of your suggestions, and I can't seem to find a way to dial the internet connection...

I got it once before, I had a gateway created, and DHPC enabled (i think there was a delay).

Thanks again,

Mike Plantguy
m_vaninsberghe@hotmail.com
vanins@island.net

 

[rjkrash]

Can you dial from one computer?
Are both computers XP, if not what are they?

for trouble shooting help

on each computer:

start > run > cmd

at the command prompt type "ipconfig /all" (w/out quotes)

copy and paste results into a post for us to study.

to copy from command prompt, right click, select all, press Enter. Data from window now on clipboard.


The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[Plantguy]

yes, both computers are running Windows XP and one can dial to the internet.

Here is the information for the computer that connects to the internet...

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

D:\Documents and Settings\Michael VanInsberghe>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : david
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Linksys LNE100TX Fast Ethernet Adapt
er(LNE100TX v4)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-04-5A-54-D8-EB
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

PPP adapter Island Internet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 207.102.122.54
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 207.102.122.54
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 199.60.19.2
199.60.19.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled


Here is the information from the computer that can't connect to the internet...

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Michael VanInsberghe>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : MICHAEL
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Mixed
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : mshome.net
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Linksys LNE100TX Fast Ethernet Adapt
er(LNE100TX v4)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-04-5A-55-16-C3
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : January 19, 2002 6:55:25 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : January 26, 2002 6:55:25 PM

hope this helps...

Mike Plantguy
m_vaninsberghe@hotmail.com
vanins@island.net

 

[rjkrash]

This is really strange because things look ok.

A couple more questions...

Can the both machines still see/access shares on the other machine? You said earlier that print and file sharing was working but has that changed?

Check the workgroup name on both computers? If you took the defaults and ran the Wizard on both machines I think it would be MSHOME if they are different make them both the same. Doesn't matter what just make them identical.

Are both machines XP Home or XP Pro? It shouldn't matter but ...

Have you installed all/some of the updates from MS for XP? The most critical, for this issue, is the first one that was released right after XP was released in October. If not, get it and install it. The later updates are security related and important but should not be affecting us here, I hope!

I'm getting stumped here, grasping at straws. As a last resort, if you haven't already tried it, delete all your connections (Lan and modem) on both machines, reboot, create the modem connection, (the Lan connection should be discovered and established on boot) and rerun the Network Setup wizard on both machines. Maybe all the fiddling has messed things up.

Double check all the Causes/Solutions I posted earlier.

Sorry about this, I hesitate to quote our last President but, "I feel your Pain". Keep trying! This 'feature' is working on a whole lot of machines and it should work on yours! I'll keep looking for an answer.


The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[Plantguy]

File and print sharing is still working, the workgroup name is the same, they are both running Xp hme edition and i'll download the updates from microsoft...

Thanks for your help!!

Mike

Plantguy

 

[Plantguy]

I deleted the modem connect, but couldn't delete the LAN connection. I removed all of the clients, services and protocols from the LAN connection and restarted the computer. I ran the Network Setup Wizard and at the end when it was configuring the computer (that can connect to the internet), I recieved this message:

Cannot Complete the Network Setup Wizard
An error occured during configuration of the network on this computer.
You can configure your network manually, or you can run the wizard again with different settings.

I also ran the Wizard on the computer that can't connect to the internet, and it made it to the end without any errors. Plantguy
m_vaninsberghe@hotmail.com
vanins@island.net

 

[wmg]

Not sure if this will help or not but I had a similar problem between a Windows 2000 workstation (dial-up host) and a Win95 notebook at a friends place yesterday.

The problem was that the software firewall (ZoneAlarm and Norton Personal Firewall - tried both) would not allow traffic from the notebook to the internet via the ICS configured in Windows 2000. I tried configuring ZoneAlarm to allow traffic from 'local' address (192.168.0.x) but this still would not work. In the end I removed the software firewall and it all works fine. Had the same symptom where file/print would work but not ICS.

Is it possible that you had the Windows XP 'internet security' feature (whatever it's called) enabled on the dial-up connection? Could it be that, with that enabled, ICS will not work? I really hope not - but it is a possibility!!

Regards
wmg

 

[Plantguy]

The Internet Firewall on Xp is not enabled, and we don't own any firewall software. I was wondering if the router could be blocking the internet???

Thanks,
Mike Plantguy
m_vaninsberghe@hotmail.com
vanins@island.net

 

[wmg]

Hmm - I don't think so because the internet is being dialed via a modem on the PC - the router shouldn't really be stopping the internet being reached - unless it is blocking that traffic from/to the 'slave' PC somehow.

 

[rjkrash]

You got the error:

Cannot Complete the Network Setup Wizard
An error occured during configuration of the network on this computer.
You can configure your network manually, or you can run the wizard again with different settings.

I hate those wizards!
Try setting up manually use the info I posted above on 01/15.

Did you recreate the modem/dialup connection before you ran the wizard? YOu need that before you set up the ICS.

Durn this is frustrating!
The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[Plantguy]

It looks as if it is working now...

I re-configured it manually and i tried adding a DNS server address of 192.188.0.1 and it started to work!!!

I want to thank all of you for all of your help, I hope that I will beable to return it someday!! What a great site!

Mike Plantguy
m_vaninsberghe@hotmail.com
vanins@island.net